The Port Chicago 50 must be exonerated and you can help

It is never too late to correct an injustice against men who honorably served our nation but were discriminated against and unjustly convicted of mutiny because of their race.

We recently became aware of the efforts of the Contra Costa County Bar Association's Port Chicago Task Force to seek exoneration of the Port Chicago 50. The 50 African American sailors became civil rights heroes during World War II because of their bravery in the face of injustice. On July 17, 1944, a massive explosion rocked the naval magazine at Port Chicago, California, killing 320 and wounding hundreds of others. The Port Chicago 50 were asked to go back to work to clean up the human remains and debris but objected to returning to work in the same conditions that had caused the explosion. In a publicized trial, the Navy tried and convicted the 50 of mutiny, a crime punishable by death. There was a total of five lawyers representing the 50 men on charges which could result in death sentences. Despite the lack of constitutionally adequate legal representation and other irregularities the men were unjustly convicted. To address this injustice in 2022, the Task Force formed and joined a longstanding movement of community and civil rights leaders to raise awareness about the Port Chicago Disaster and the injustice that resulted in the conviction of these men for mutiny.

The Task Force is calling on the nation to correct this historic injustice. The mutiny convictions stemmed from racial discrimination in our armed services during World War II. The brave men known as the Port Chicago 50 did not commit mutiny, but they did challenge the status quo. They were whistleblowers who served courageously and honorably under oppressive conditions, and their principled stand was a catalyst for the modern civil rights movement. As word of their heroics spread, a national appeal campaign on their behalf, led by NAACP's Chief Counsel Thurgood Marshall, gained support from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt among others, and the sailors were quietly released from prison and returned to active duty in January 1946. One month later, following intense public pressure, the Navy became the first branch of the military to end segregation. The orders given to the Port Chicago 50 lacked moral authority because the Navy knew the orders imperiled the lives of all the sailors at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine. The Task Force is now calling on the Defense Department and the Navy to recognize these factors, and to change their personnel records to reflect honorable discharges.

Decades after the trial, the Navy publicly released internal records revealing hazardous working conditions at the naval magazine violated federal safety laws and regulations. The Navy knew this but persisted in punishing the Port Chicago 50, the only persons ever punished for the Disaster. The mutiny trial was fundamentally flawed. Five lawyers represented 50 sailors, undermining the effectiveness of their representation. Evidentiary rulings permitted testimony ascribing allegedly conspiratorial statements to the Port Chicago 50 as a group. Other rulings excluded potentially exculpatory evidence, such as testimony describing the conditions facing the sailors as they lived and worked at Port Chicago. These conditions included dangerous working conditions handling munitions unsafely, and evidence the sailors attempted to warn the white officers of the danger of an explosion from the unsafe ammunition handling practices enforced by the officers.

After nearly 80 years, it is long past time for the Navy to restore honor and justice to the legacies of the brave sailors of Port Chicago through full exoneration. Generations of Americans have called on the nation to do better, and the nation has too often been slow to act. Many did not live to see change - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, and Emmett Till to name a few -- but they and their fellow Americans entrusted these issues to the succeeding generations to get it right. The Task Force advocates for exoneration in the belief that it is never too late to make good on that ideal.

There are strong national interests in preserving, advancing or restoring the rule of law to one grounded in impartial and even-handed justice. Exoneration will reassert the importance of due process of law by emphasizing that we as a nation are willing to correct historical injustices where our justice system fell short of our national values. Exoneration would also send a strong message to every enlisted person in the military that their sacrifice will be honored through the fair administration of justice for those who are accused of crimes while serving our nation.

Our nation has a long history of protecting lawful protest. The Port Chicago 50 courageously refused to return to work under the unsafe conditions that led to the deaths of 320 sailors, but they expressed readiness to work if they had proper training and equipment. This conduct highlighted dangerous conditions imposed on the sailors and would be considered protected whistleblowing by today's standards. Exoneration will recognize that the Port Chicago 50 deserved due process, acted reasonably, and called attention to unsafe conditions created by their commanding officers.

Finally, there is much in our public discourse about the essential role of the rule of law in our society. But the rule of law settles our expectations as a society only when it is just. Our notion of what is just evolves with our national experience. A century ago, we were a nation living under a regime of discriminatory race relations wrongly decided by the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson. Brown v. Board of Education established a new rule of law, just a decade after the mutiny convictions of the Port Chicago 50. The correction of an unjust outcome of any legal system is a test of its strength and the strength of the rule of law. This is a core founding principle of the Task Force. Because when our legal system reaches back to correct the mistakes of the past, it engages in self-examination and self-reflection, and as a result, the rule of law is strengthened.

Case in point: In November 2023, the Army set aside the courts-martial convictions of 110 soldiers who participated in a riot in Houston in 1917. Following months of racial provocations against the soldiers, the 110 Buffalo Soldiers seized weapons and marched into Houston where violence erupted that left 19 people dead. The court martial that followed was, according to historians, marked by numerous flaws. In taking the step late last year to exonerate the men posthumously, the Army found that the soldiers were "wrongly treated because of their race and were not given fair trials."

The Port Chicago 50 are no less deserving of exoneration. The Task Force will continue to work to persuade the Navy of this even as the 80th anniversary of the Disaster approaches this July. The Task Force, a group of volunteer attorneys and non-attorneys that includes a range of ages and occupations, is calling for your assistance to help correct this injustice before its 80th anniversary on July 17, 2024. If you are wondering how you can help make a difference here are some suggestions.

· Learn more about the work of the Task Force by going to the following site: https://www.cccba.org/cccba-port-chicago-taskforce/

· Sign the petition at the link below, and contact your government officials and demand justice for the Port Chicago 50: https://www.change.org/p/exonerate-the-port-chicago-50

Will you join us in making a difference?